Trust

Deal | 取引

The Djinn didn't respond at first, merely continuing to stare blankly at Lucy as she stared right back at it.

After an unknown amount of time passed of Lucy refusing to look away, its mouth opened, a snake-like tongue licking the blood-like substance off its teeth before saying, in a voice dark and gravelly, "yes," and that was it. That was all it said, slowly closing its mouth afterwards and releasing a low hum from its throat as it waited for Lucy's response.

"I see." She said evenly, keeping her voice from wavering. "From what I know of dungeons, I do believe this means we've cleared it?" She said it less as a question and more as a statement, hoping to remember more of what Kouen and Sinbad had previously told her.

"That is true," it's voice became more distorted, "for a normal dungeon, that is. Unlike those fools, I care not for Solomon's will nor do I care what will happen to this world. Regardless of whatever may happen outside the walls of this dungeon, I will remain so I see no reason to blindly follow that little Magi just because he is His descendant." Its bones cracked unnaturally as it bent down to reach Lucy's eye level.

"You do not get to leave here until I decide you do. This dungeon is my domain and in it, my powers are unmatched. So tell me, little girl not from this world, why should I let you leave when I've finally gotten some fresh faces here after so many years?"

Unwillingly, Lucy's eyes drifted around the room and she eventually unwillingly focused on the sparse remains of a skeleton she didn't realize was there.

"You shouldn't." She quickly snapped her eyes back to it to respond, forcing herself to appear more confident than she is. "We broke into your home, trashed it, and now am asking you to send us back on our way—and why would anyone want to do that?" She shrugged, unbothered by all of its eyes now focusing on her.

"There's no reason for you to let us leave but think of how long you've been trapped here." She thought back to her own time spent in her fathers mansion. "Think of how long it's been since Solomon's reign and how isolated from everything you've been. Did you even know that someone was using your domain—and you—to do the grunt work she didn't want to do, like disposing of people? You could do so much more with your life not stuck here in this dungeon." Like she yearned to do before she finally ran away. "What I'm asking isn't for you to just let us go, it's for us to make a deal."

The Djinn looked intrigued by her, its teeth less bared and now more curious than hostile.

"Go on," it urged, voice no longer distorted but still gravelly.

"See those four who dropped in with me? They're by far the strongest people in my—" but is it really still her world? Does she really think it is? "—in the other world, and if there's anyone who could possibly get you out of here, it's them. And my magic could also come in handy," she came up with an idea, "see I can summon Spirits who live in their own world to come to wherever I am. Imagine if you could, without exerting any of your own power, go all over the world, whenever you want to, then come back to your dungeon. Constantly. Because that's what my Spirits do and the Celestial Spirit King does owe me a favor." One she was never planning on cashing in but she's desperate right now.

"So who knows, maybe he'll even be able to do some kind of magic to tweak the way you already would appear in the outside world to make that work." Lucy really hopes this works, she's not sure what else she could do if it doesn't. 

"So what do you say, do we have a deal?"

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A/N: Guys I wanted to make this chapter longer but when I finally opened it after like two weeks, I realized it was already basically finished and instead of just adding on to it, I realized its been almost a month since the last chapter and decided to just post this instead and leave whatever I was going to add for the next chapter lol. Hope you enjoyed :)